Homeowners need to remove potentially harmful and unnecessary chemicals from their homes. There are many good reasons to do this, especially because toxic chemicals could end up polluting the ground water of the community, which could influence the drinking water reserves, agriculture and the whole ecosystem. There are cases of increased chemical sensitivities and it is clear that chemical exposures are affecting our immune system. Homes with pregnant women and small children should be particularly vigilant because toxins could affect them more severely. Pound for pound, children and pregnant women could suffer more aggravating effects of chemical exposures. To further complicate the problem, small children and foetus are still developing, so they can be badly affected by toxic chemicals.
Fortunately, there are many things we can do and it is quite sad that toxic products in our houses have become the norm. These products can be found easily in stores and they are quite affordable. In fact, it is nearly impossible to remove these chemicals from our household, due to the lack of alternative products. Without becoming anti-chemical zealots, we could still dramatically remove much of the toxic chemicals from our house. Many toxic products are related to general cleaning agents, bath and beauty. When evaluating products inside our house, we should check for signals that may indicate high risk. Some of the words that we may encounter include poison, danger, warning and caution. In fact, manufacturers tend to downplay the risks and use less threatening words to avoid scaring consumers away.
We should raid our pantry. Alternatively, plant-based ingredients, vinegar and baking soda are quite affordable and they have been proven to keep our house clean without increasing the levels of toxicity. Baking soda can be effective to clean toilets, tubs, drains, sinks, rugs and carpets. Vegetable oil can be mixed with some lemon juice to clean wood surfaces. We may use vinegar solutions to clean mirror and windows. For natural air freshener, we could simmer cinnamon and cloves on the stove. In this case, we may need to seek help from co-friendly professionals, especially if many parts of our house need deep cleaning or if our houses have serious pest issues. Some cleaning products have beneficial live bacteria and enzyme to break down organic stain and we should consider using them in our house.
There are many versatile, safe solutions that can be used as all-natural cleaning agents and chemical-free deodorizers. Their effects can be enhanced with microbial inoculants and enzymes. We may add these biologically active products to our laundry for deep cleaning purposes. We may need to remove our shoes every time we come inside our house. Our house will become much cleaner and we will feel more comfortable. Shoes could dirty our home and our home will require more frequent cleaning. We should avoid using anti-bacterial products, because a little biodiversity in our house can be a very good thing. In fact, fully sterilizing our house could increase the chance for dangerous organisms like staphs to spread.
